Pretty Please - Riley McDonough Fanfiction

Chapter 16

Avery's POV

I forgave Sky. I needed to. I didn't want to hold grudges against him and I believed he knew he has done wrong. He had apologized for like a thousand times and honestly I was getting bored to it. He was sorry, I could see it from his eyes. He bought me flowers and made me happy, which I hadn't actually expected. It was like nothing had changed between us and I liked that. He even came to work to say 'hi' everyday...

... Before Riley came to pick me up.

I knew I was a terrible person. Sky didn't know what kind of relationship we had. He didn't know Riley drove me home everyday and went for a jog with me every Saturday and sometimes on Sunday. But I had decided to pull back my feelings for him and focus on my relationship with Sky. It was best for everyone.

Still, I talked to Riley more than anyone. I didn't know if something has changed between us or not. There was this electricity that was new and it kind of scared me a little bit, because I was working so hard to not notice it. Anyway, we talked a lot. I even talked him more than I talked with Sky or Ellie, which was also new. I wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing, but I decided not to think about it. Riley was so good for me and maybe even too good. He was such a good friend, but I felt like I wasn't being honest with him.

I snapped out of my thoughts when the doorbell rang. It was Riley. I was so happy to see him, because he had been gone for a few days and I hadn't talked to him that much since he had been... somewhere. I didn't know where exactly. But it was somewhere far, I suspected, because he had replayed to my text at odd hours. I hadn't asked where he had been, since he didn't like to talk about his job, so I let it be. It wasn't like I never kept secrets.

I opened the door.

"Hey", he said, looking very tired. He was drinking the coffee in his hand like it was water and he had spent days stranded on a desert. He had another coffee in his other hand and he gave it to me. "I brought you coffee."

"Thanks", I said, "but it looks like you could use it more."

"I'm fine." He waved me off.

"No, you're not." I opened the door more and let him in. He walked in slowly, already familiar with the place. "We're not going running when you can barely stand", I told him and guided him to the couch. "You look super tired. When did you come back?"

He sat down and looked up at me. "Like two hours ago."

"Riley!"

"What? I'm fine."

"Did you sleep on the plane?" I wasn't sure if he had flown, but I guessed it would have been a long road trip because he had not been anywhere near. I placed my hands on my hips.

"Yeah." He was looking troubled and rubbed his neck.

I raised my brows.

"Okay, like two or three hours!" I smiled at his pouting face. "Can we go now?"

Shooting my head, I said: "No, you're tired."

"I've been tired before. Nothing I can't handle. And I'm not really tired." But then he yawned just to prove my point. He grinned a little. "Fine. But I'm not going to sleep because I want to talk to you. I missed you."

My heart warmed at that. He had missed me. The warmth spread all over my body and I felt my cheeks flush. He was my friend, of course I had missed him. I had missed him a lot.

I told him that and he smiled. "That's great to hear. I was actually a little scared you had forgotten me."

"Oh. Well, I didn't. I wouldn't." There were a couple of reasons for that: a) he was a good friend of mine and we were close, b) his face... Like someone could ever forget something so beautiful. If I was going to deny my feelings I didn't obviously have, I would still think he was beautiful. It was kinda weird. The more I looked at him, the more beautiful he was. It was kind of disturbing, actually.